The most notable refinement from the GTA series is the severely improved dialogue sequence introduction to missions, transforming generic cliched babble into compelling character development. Although players will encounter various cookie cutter spaghetti western personalities the writing staff for RDR seemed to take painstaking efforts to makes these characters actually sound like they're from 1911, with only a few minor colloquial missteps from time to time. This attention to detail was a much welcomed transition from 100% hard ass gangsters and low-lifes, as characters associated with and encountered by John Marston continually exhibit character evolution and variety. The player's view of the RDR world is much wider than drug dealers, pimps and crime lords. Among the more distinct missions involved assisting a shady traveling tonic salesman. It served as a tutorial for using the Dead Eye mechanic, but swindling those gullible farmers was extremely fun. And unlike previous Rockstar sandbox games, John Marston actually makes an impact and triggers character development in the people he encounters. The only character who doesn't seem to evolve is John Marston himself, however considering his motivation is somewhat one-tracked but mimics infamous gunslinging heroes of legend, film or otherwise. Needles to say, I found myself watching the introductions to missions since the dialogue and writing were so quality, starkly contrasting my frantic efforts to skip the constant Scarface monologues during GTA mission introductions.
Aside from the well researched parlance of the game, the thoroughly researched settings, clothing, weaponry and vehicles pleased my nerdy eye for detail. A common folly which befalls games set in a historic era present a much more lax or negligent approach in creating an accurate representation of the period, more often than not fabricating elements which seem "appropriate" to the era. For nitpickers such as myself, the lazy no research approach can completely ruin a gaming experience, something Rockstar seemed to recognize during development . It's for that very reason the period specificity deserves a notable mention since anything less in terms of research would have completely dissolved the engaging ambiance, resulting in yet another mindless GTA sandbox clone. While in the expansive wilderness of RDR and aided by the minimalist music, you truly feel alone. Excluding randomly spawning NPCs who will generally try to gain your attention, the countryside is a desolate and foreboding expanse of nature. From time to time without paying attention I would find myself exploring a province for no reason but to roam around the beautiful setting, something I haven't done since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
As with most games in this current generation, one must take the good with the bad. The previously mentioned positive elements appeared to be the main focus of the Rockstar development team, as these spectacular pros are quickly outweighed by non-existent updating of carried over GTA features. RDR is symptomatic of severe graphical glitches and some very serious frame rate issues whenever the game requires the PS3 to do a decent amount of processing. During all of the frantic horseback chases I encountered, enemy NPCs will, without fail, approach you from the rear, in order to deal with that threat the player must about-face to gun the varmints down. Every single time I was required to perform this about-face, the game would drop from a constant 60 FPS down to around 15-20 FPS in order to accommodate loading of terrain, animals and other frills which were now in visible range. This sudden drop in frames added an extra level of difficulty to successfully aiming at targets to bring them down, which unaffected by the sudden frame rate drop continue moving as if the game were performing at 60 FPS. During one mission in particular, I was shamefully forced to change my controller settings from "Expert" to "Casual" since the game was completely unable to keep even a stable 25-30 FPS with everything happening on the screen. These framerate slowdowns would be resolved with a couple seconds, but they would generally be a few of the most critical while being pursued by 5-10 or more assailants.
Since witnesses make stealing horses impractical and a lack of alternate transportation is generally unavailable, it's safe to say Marston's horse is one of the most important elements of gameplay. I expected Zelda-like accuracy when calling my horse, what I got was a horse with a sheep's brain. It's not often I come across AI so stupid it makes Dragoons from the first Starcraft look like brain surgeons, so in order to illustrate my point here is a partial list of some of the instances of horse AI stupidity:
- It proceeded to run past me and clip through a building wall getting stuck. I had to shoot it so I could summon a new one which put a bounty on my head leading to me getting shot in the back by a hidden lawman.
- It ran past me, ran straight off a cliff and died.
- Frequently after summoning, it will continue to run away instead of stopping at John Marston's position, until it's chased down and caught. It won't not stop if this happens and will continue to run away if it evades capture. I failed a number of missions, bounty hunts and other events due to this and began mindlessly mashing the summon button to compensate.
- It wandered off (it will do that a lot too), ran straight into a pack of wolves and got eaten.
- Stopping a ways out from a bounty, I attempted to leave it a distance away so it wouldn't be an obstacle. It followed me and insisted on standing right in front me blocking several key shots. It got an accidental bullet to the head as a result, leaving me stranded after hogtying my bounty.
Controlling John Marston through the world was no small feat either. Moving him around felt like trying to control a severely drunk man like a marionette with half the strings missing. This is another area of the game that should have been reevaluated as it's the exact same control scheme carried over from the GTA games. The lazy approach to this port of controls made me woefully reminiscent of pointlessly running into walls and other obstacles due to the player's character having a turning radius as wide as the Epcot Center. Additionally, requiring the player to mash a button on the controller to run instead of making the analogue stick pressure sensitive isn't a novel idea, it's another example of lazy programming. Combat, although refined from GTA IV and Vice City, did a good job in making me feel like I was revisiting Heavy Rain. While aiming, Marston's turning radius is equally as horrible as when he's walking and being incapable of doing a quick 180 spin makes speedy combat reflexes impossible, boiling combat down to luck, how full the Dead Eye meter is, and terrible enemy NPC aiming.
Multiplayer has similar incomplete elements which often times make it a frustrating experience. Allowing players to use full auto-aim through the first 50 levels encourages other players to shoot on sight and behave like degenerate jerks, however this could just be a reflection of those player's personalities... Respawn locations in the main world and during mini-games prove easily predictable and usually result in the first player dead getting constantly killed for lack of a quick 180 spin. Leveling imitates MMO quest grinding through survival challenges, killing enemy NPC gangs and mindlessly killing other players and after the player's armory is full only provides faster mounts and more unlockable characters. Additionally my favorite element from single player, the lasso, is stupidly absent. More forethought into making it impossible to abuse in an unfair way would have made players encounters mimic the single player's morality meter more accurately, (if you're curious pick honorable, you can hogtie everyone in the world and receive no bounty), and made for hilarious moments when "Nick expertly lassoed X_Jerkplayer_666" popped up on the screen.
Overall the 15-20 hours of missions are the most compelling part of the game, and if you feel like killing some time there's tons of mindless fun to be had playing poker, tracking bounties, assisting randomly spawning passerbys in distress and plenty more. A myriad of graphical and bug oversights greatly overshadow an otherwise perfect atmosphere coupled with expertly executed writing and research. Recycled controls and gameplay mechanics are unfortunately reminiscent of a lack of refinement and development through a number of previous Rockstar sandbox games, ultimately closing the gap between the GTA series and this shining beacon of hope for future endeavors.
No comments:
Post a Comment